Plasma Arc LIFI lighting already in use at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Well just when you star thinking that Plasma Arc lighting is still years away from anything but prototype use, we stumble upon this awesome macroalgae tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is already using Luxim’s latest and greatest. We had a look at the lighting behind this tank before we saw the front but if we hadn’t, the color balance and the shimmer was so natural that we would have guessed that this aquarium was using a skylight or a Sola Tube. Now before you go griping that this is a macroalgae tank and not a reef tank, keep in mind that these giant plants often have higher light demands than many of our deeper living corals, expecially the branching coralline algaes which live in extreme shallows and tidepools. At the time this video was shot, the Luxim Plasma Arc light had been in use for a couple months. Enjoy the video of the tank itself and we’ll post the video demo of the light running on this tank soon. Big thanks to David Cripe for giving us the tour of both sides of this tank. For the record, this tank is using just one single 250 watt LIFI lamp and still getting lots of brightness at the bottom of the tank, over 36″ deep.

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.